Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Crisis Core copyright Squaresoft/Square-enix.
The rain drops felt like tiny knives falling on me, laughing at my defeat. I could barely think straight because of all the pain I was in. I couldn't believe I was still alive after being shot at by an entire army of soldiers. At this point in my life, Mako enhancement seems like a final punishment for failing the company; if you die, you will die a slow and painful death. This is not the place or the way I imagined myself dying; I never actually thought about death, but I definitely didn't think I would just bleed to death behind a large rock. I'm sorry, Aeris. I never got to say goodbye, but I'm sure she will understand. As I closed my eyes and my mind began to wander, I heard helicopter blades approaching rapidly. It didn't matter to me, however, I was already dead and there was nothing they could do to me. A few seconds later, the helicopter landed and I heard running footsteps accompanied by Reno's voice.
"Cissnei, we found the target." He said into an earpiece as they came up to me and picked me up.
"You're… *cough* wasting your time…" I managed to grunt out; I had no idea what the Turks wanted with me. They usually didn't mix with SOLDIER unless they were being paid to. I slowly slipped out of consciousness as I thought about the possibilities.
***** Omniscient Observer POV *****
"Rude, status." The radio inside the helicopter squawked as Rude sat down in one of the pilot seats while Reno was getting Zack secured for the flight.
"Target is presumed dead. Catastrophic injuries to all extremities below the neck, several moderate to severe head injuries. Obscene loss of blood." Rude said in a monotone voice.
"The target still has a heartbeat, so don't let Tall Dark and Gloomy make you think this is a waste, but he is right about the injuries. I don't know how we can save him ourselves." Reno added.
"Floor it to HQ and keep him stable. I have an idea." Cissnei responded; she didn't even let go of the transmit button before she started dialing someone's number on her cell phone.
"Alright, HQ it is; and step on it." Reno sighed; he didn't believe Zack was dead just yet, but he didn't know what Cissnei had planned or if whatever she had planned would make any real difference.
"Tseng, they found Zack but he is beyond our help; short prolonging his life for another three to five hours. Any ideas? I… I really want to try to save him. I know I was sent to bring him in, and let him escape twice, but I just can't watch him die; not now." Cissnei pleaded with Tseng; even though he originally told them to find Zack, she wasn't sure what he planned to do afterward if they did find him alive.
"I don't know what you expect me to do if you say he is beyond our help, even with the medical team that even Shinra is jealous of." Tseng sounded slightly cold but also confused.
"Please, you have to help. I can't just watch someone die after being this close to saving them." Cissnei's voice started to break. Tseng let out a heavy sigh.
"I… I guess there is one person I can call for help, barring how much I dislike dealing with… him." Tseng sounded like a rebel teenager that ran away from home, but now was asking his parents for help out of a tight spot.
"Thank you so much, Tseng! I will go tell the others." Cissnei chirped and hung up the phone. Tseng let another sigh and dialed the number to the aforementioned help. The phone rang a few times and then a female voice answered.
"Hello, Sarif Industries, David Sarif's office. How may I help you?" the receptionist greeted Tseng.
"Connect me to David Sarif. It's an emergency." Tseng didn't waste time with introductions. The receptionist hit a few buttons and the phone was ringing again.
"David Sarif speaking. May I ask who's calling?" Sarif asked his anonymous caller.
"Tseng, of the Turks." Tseng said with slight disgust; he didn't particularly like Sarif or what his company was in the business of, but this wasn't about him.
"I have a matter I need your assistance with because it is out of our hands." Tseng disclosed the general purpose of his call, but was still reluctant to actually go through with asking him, of all people, for help.
"What are you looking for help with, exactly?" Sarif asked to get a more concrete idea of the kind of help needed from him.
"No one can find out about this; not about your help, not about me calling you for help. Nothing. We never talked; you've never even met me. Do I have your word?" Tseng knew how serious the trouble would be if anyone ever found out about this, so he reflected the seriousness in his tone and word choice.
"That won't be much of a problem since I still don't really know who you are anyway." Sarif was slightly sarcastic, but serious.
"We need you to save one of our agents with your expertise. They were gravely injured on a mission that went terribly wrong." Tseng made a slight pause before "save"; he wasn't sure if he was really saving Zack or making him suffer more than he is already by taking his humanity but keeping him alive to see it.
"If he really is beyond your help, the cost is not going to be pretty." Sarif warned.
"Just get it done. Let me worry about the cost." Tseng replied and ended the call. He called Reno to tell him the news.
"Go to…*sigh*… the LIMB clinic near Sarif Industries. I will send the coordinates to your navigation system. It's your only chance and choice to save Zack." Tseng paused before "save" again; he didn't feel like upsetting Cissnei, but at the same time he wasn't sure if this was going to upset her even more than his death.
"You never called us. We are flying to extract an agent from a completed mission." Reno felt like he already knew what Tseng was going to say next so he said it for him. He hung up the phone and continued to keep an eye on Zack's condition.
When they got to the limb clinic, the Helipad and surrounding area looked deserted. Rude started the descent to land and was surprised to suddenly see people when the helicopter made contact with the roof of the building.
"Holy-… Where the hell did you guys get this guy from, a meat grinder?" one of the paramedics exclaimed.
"I want this guy inside ten minutes ago!" He barked at two other medical personnel that were running up to the helicopter.
"Well, we've done all that we can, Rude. It's out of our hands now." Reno let out a heavy sigh; he's never seen someone beyond the capabilities of the Turks' or Shinra's medical staff.
"It was never in our hands in the first place. We stole him from multiple parties that will not be happy with us." Rude replied.
"The 'multiple parties' will never find out about what happened here." Reno said dismissively.
"You cannot hide anything from Death." Rude clarified who the "other parties" were.
"Oh, drop it, Rude. The kid was dead when we got there. All we did now was prolong his life long enough so he could see his humanity taken from him while he watched." Reno grumbled as they flew back to Turk HQ.
The operating room in the LIMB clinic only had 5 people in it; however, each one was worth 20 regular surgeons skill wise.
"How are we even supposed to rescue this kid? How is he even alive? Medically and functionally speaking, he has no torso." One of the surgeons asked rhetorically.
"We thought Jensen was going to die too, but he made it. I don't think Sarif would waste time and money on a lost cause." Another surgeon reminded the group to keep hope alive.
"Jensen was a walk in the park compared to this. Now lets get to work; talking isn't going to save him or help us keep our jobs." A third surgeon said dismissively.
"What kind of augs do you want us to use, boss?" The Chief Surgeon asked Sarif via intercom.
"Give him the Adam Jensen package. He looks like he runs a lot of combat ops, or at least was in a combat op that went south, so he will need it." Sarif was a pretty good judge of people who came in for surgery; what they needed, what they didn't, that kind of thing.
"Alright, one 'Hold the Humanity, Extra Resentment' coming up." The Chief Surgeon confirmed sarcastically.
"Thank you. I just love being reminded of that. That is just what I needed." Sarif fired back with the same sarcastic tone. There was a brief silence, and then the surgeons began their work.
Almost 15 hours later, they had finally finished; the Chief Surgeon went to report the "success" to Sarif.
"It's done. We replaced just about 95% of his body with augmentations, but it's done. He's stable and being moved to the recovery ward. I wouldn't even call that surgery, that was manufacturing and engineering. You had the strength to make the decision of giving these augmentations, let's see if you have the strength to tell him he traded his humanity for his life." The Chief Surgeon reported with disgust.